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Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Business and Personal here Business and Personal The Charge for Insertion under this head is One Dollar a Line. If the Notices exceed Four Lines, One Dollar and a Half per Line will be charged. The paper that meets the eye of manufacturers throughout the United States—Boston Bulletin, $4.00 a year. Advertisements 17c. a line. Half Interest for sale in established Machinery Depot, new and second-hand. Steam fitting connected. Small capital, with energy, required. Address T. V. Carpenter, Advertising Agent, Box 773, New York. See advertisement of a Woolen Mill for sale. A bargain. I am active, have a clear record, and some capital. How can I make some money? F. Carmill, Box 1268, Boston, Mass. Pattern Letters for Machinists, Molders, and Inventors, to letter patterns of castings, all sizes. Address H. W. Knight, Seneca Falls, N. Y. Improved mode of Graining Wood, pat. July 5, '70, by J. J. Callow, Cleveland, O. See illustrated S. A., Dec. 17, '70. Send stamp for circular. Can a round, spring-steel rod be drawn to any desired length, with a true taper to a point, with equal elasticity the whole length, and rolled temper? What is the price per hundred pounds, and where can they be procured? Answer "Sportsman," Malone, N. Y. Manufacturers of Foot Lathes and other light machinery please address Geo. B. Kirkham, 167 E. 33d st., N. Y. city. Business of importance! Safety Kerosene Lamps (Perkins & House's Patent). Explosion or breaking impossible; light equal to gas, and no odor. Families supplied and canvassers appointed, by Montgomery & Co., 42 Barclay st., New York, or Cleveland, O. All parties wanting a water wheel will learn something of interest by addressing P. H. Wait, Sandy Hill, N. Y., for a free circular of his Hudson River Champion Turbine. Ashcroft's Low Water Detector, $15; thousands in use; 17 year's experience. Can be applied for $1. Send for circular. E. H. Ashcroft, Boston, Mass. Wanted.—Machines for manufacturing Pails, Tubs, and Matches. Also, competent man to superintend construction of buildings, and manage all parts of business when complete. Address, with descriptive circulars, price, etc., No. 266 Lexington avenue, New York. Turbine Water Wheels, Portable and Stationary Engines, Gang and Circular Saw Mills, Rolling Mill Machinery, and Machinery for Axe Manufacturers, manufactured by Wm. P. Duncan, Bellefonte, Pa. For best Power Picket Header in use, apply to Wm. P. Duncan, Bellefonte, Pa. New Blind Wirer and Rod Cutter. B. C. Davis & Co., Binghamton, N. Y. Self-testing Steam Gage. There's a difference between a chronometer watch and a "bull's eye." Same difference between a self-tester and common steam gage. Send for Circular. E. H. Ashcroft, Boston, Mass. See advertisement of L. & J. W. Feuchtwanger, Chemists, N. Y. $3.50. Stephens' Patent Combination Rule, Level, Square, Plumb, Bevel, etc. See advertisement in another column. Agents wanted. American Boiler Powder Co., Box 315, Pittsburgh, Pa., make the only safe, sure, and cheap remedy for "Scaly Boilers." Orders solicited. Belting that is Belting.—Always send for the Best Philadelphia Oak-Tanned, to C. W. Arny, Manufacturer, 301 Cherry st., Phil'a. E. Howard & Co., Boston, make the best Stem-winding Watch in the country. Ask for it at all the dealers. Office 15 Maiden Lane, N. Y. For mining, wrecking, pumping, drainage, and irrigating machinery, see advertisement of Andrews' Patents in another column. The best place to get Working Models and parts is at T. B. Jeffery's, 160 South Water st., Chicago. Brown's Coalyard Quarry & Contractors' Apparatus for hoisting and conveying material by iron cable. W. D. Andrews & Bro, 414 Water st., N. Y. Improved Foot Lathes. Many a reader of this paper has one of them. Selling in all parts of the country, Canada, Europe, etc. Catalogue free. N. H. Baldwin, Laconia, N. H. Peteler Portable R. R. Co. contractors, graders. See adv'ment. E. P. Peacock, Manufacturer of Cutting Dies, Press Work. Patent Articles in Metals, etc. 55 Franklin st., Chicago. Peck's Patent Drop Press. Milo Peck & Co., New Haven, Ct. Millstone Dressing Diamond Machine—Simple, effective, durable. For description of the above see Scientific American, Nov. 27th, 1869. Also, Glazier's Diamonds. John Dickinson, 64 Nassau st., N. Y. Steel name stamps, figures, etc. E. H. Payn, M'f'r, Burlington, Vt. Cold Rolled-Shafting, piston rods, pump rods, Collins pat. double compression couplings, manufactured by Jones & Laughlins, Pittsburgh, Pa. Keuffel & Esser 116 Fulton st., N. Y., the best place to get 1st-class Drawing Materials, Swiss instruments, and Rubber Triangles and Curves. For Solid Wrought-iron Beams, etc., see advertisement. Address Union Iron Mills, Pittsburgh, Pa., for lithograph, etc. For the best Self-regulating Windmill in the world, to pump water for residences, farms, city buildings, drainage, and irrigation, address Con. Windmill Co., 5 College Place, New York. The Merriman Bolt Cutter—the best made. Send for circulars. H. B. Brown & Co., Fair Haven, Conn. Taft's Portable Hot Air, Vapor and Shower Bathing Apparatus. Address Portable Bath Co., Sag Harbor, N. Y. (Send for Circular.) Glynn's Anti-Incrustator for Steam Boilers—The only reliable preventive. No foaming, and does not attack metals of boilers. Price 25 cents per lb. C. D. Fredricks, 587 Broadway, New York. For Fruit-Can Tools, Presses, Dies for all Metals, apply to Bliss & Williams, successor to May & Bliss, 118, 120, and 122 Plymouth st., Brooklyn, N. Y. Send for catalogue. 2d-hand Worthington, Woodward and Novelty Pumps, Engines 25 to 100 H.P., 60 Horse Loc. Boiler. W. D. Andrews & Bro., 414 Water st., N. Y. Agents wanted, to sell the Star Bevel. It supersedes the old style. Send for Circular. Hallett & White, West Meriden, Conn. English and American Cotton Machinery and Yarns, Beam Warps and Machine Tools. Thos. Pray, Jr., 57 Weybosset st., Providence, R. I. For small, soft, Gray Iron Castings, Japanned, Tinned, or Bronzed, address Enterprise Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia. Conklin's Detachable Rubber Lip, for bowls, etc., works like a charm. For Rights, address O. P. Conklin, Worcester, Mass., or A. Daul, Philadelphia, Pa. To Ascertain where there will be a demand for new machinery or manufacturers' supplies read Boston Commercial Bulletin's Manufacturing News of the United States. Terms $4.00 a year. Facts for the Ladies. In 1870, Mrs. W. made, with her Wheeler & Wilson machine, 2,255 vests, besides doing her family sewing for six persons. The Pittsburgh, Pa., "Leader" says: "The firm of Geo. P. Rowell & Co. is the largest and best Advertising Agency in the United States, and we can cheerfully recommend it to the attention of those who desire to advertise their business scientifically and systematically in such a way; that is, to secure the largest amount of publicity for the least expenditure of money." at American Institute Fair for 1870, Pratt's Astral Oil was pronounced the safest and best. After an exhaustive trial, Its Varieties, Causes, Symptoms, and Cure. By E. P. Miller, M.D. Paper, 50cts.; Muslin, $1. Address Miller, Haynes & Co., 41 West Twenty-sixth st., New York city. Dyspepsia: How Wasted and How Preserved; or, Abuses of the Sexual Function, their Causes Effects and Means of Cure. By E. P. Miller M.D. Paper, 50cts. Address Miller, Haynes & Co., 41 West Twenty-sixth st., New York city. Vital Force: About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2006). Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19180/pg19180-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Business and Personal

LIQUID FUELS AND THEIR COMBUSTION

Scientific American, Vol. XXXIX. No. 6. [New Series.], August 10, 1878, by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . THE JAPANESE BUILDING AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION. here THE JAPANESE BUILDING AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION. Japan, on the terrestrial globe, lies furthest away in that direction beyond the Far West of America, and beyond the wide Pacific. The Japanese structure has a simple and solid aspect, resembling the portal of a half-fortified mansion, with massive timber frames at the sides; but it is adorned with two handsome porcelain fountains, and each of these is designed to represent the stump of a tree supporting a shell into which the water is poured from a large flower. Before entering the porch a large map of Japan and a plan of the city of Tokio are seen displayed on the walls to right and left.— Illustrated London News. Machinery for New York State Capitol Building. The Buckeye Engine Company of this city have been awarded the contract for a pair of condensing engines, cylinders 14 inches diameter, stroke 28 inches, for the State Capitol Building at Albany, New York. The engines will be of the company's usual horizontal type with automatic cut off, and will be elaborately finished. The Explosiveness of Flour. Professors Peck and Peckham, of the University of Minnesota, have been making an extensive series of experiments to determine the cause of the recent flour mill explosion at Minneapolis. The substances tested were coarse and fine bran, material from stone grinding wheat; wheat dust, from wheat dust house; middlings, general mill dust, dust from middlings machines, dust from flour dust house (from stones), and flour. When thrown in a body on a light, all these substances put the light out. Blown by a bellows into the air surrounding a gas flame, the following results were obtained: Coarse bran would not burn. Fine bran and flour dust burn quickly, with considerable blaze. Middlings burn quicker, but with less flame. All the other substances burn very quickly, very much like gunpowder. In all these cases there was a space around the flash where the dust was not thick enough to ignite from particle to particle; hence it remained in the air after the explosion. Flour dust, flour middlings, etc., when mixed with air, thick enough to ignite from particle to particle, and separated so that each particle is surrounded by air, will unite with the oxygen in the air, producing a gas at high temperature, which requires an additional space, hence the bursting. There is no gas which comes from flour or middlings that is an explosive; it is the direct combination with the air that produces gas, requiring additional space. Powerful electric sparks from the electric machine and from the Leyden jar were passed through the air filled with dust of the different kinds, but without an explosion in any case. A platinum wire kept at a white heat by a galvanic battery would not produce an explosion. The dust would collect upon it and char to black coals, but would not blaze nor explode. A piece of glowing charcoal, kept hot by the bellows, would not produce an explosion when surrounded by dust, but when fanned into a blaze the explosion followed. A common kerosene lantern, when surrounded by dust of all degrees of density, would not produce an explosion, but when the dust was blown into the bottom, through the globe and out of the top, it would ignite. To explode quickly the dust must be dry. Evidently when an explosion has been started in a volume of dusty air, loose flour maybe blown into the air and made a source of danger. New Engineering Inventions. Erskine H. Bronson, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has patented an improvement in Automatic Switches for Railways, which consists in an arrangement of sliding cams for moving the switch rails, and in treadles to be operated by the pilot wheels of the locomotive, and in intermediate mechanism for connecting the treadles with the switch operating cams, the[Pg 88] object being to provide a switch will be operated by the pilot wheels of the locomotive as it approaches the movable switch rails. An improved Refrigerator Car has been patented by Michael Haughey, of St Louis, Missouri. The object of this invention is to ventilate and cool railway cars used in the transportation of perishable articles. This car has a novel ventilator and ice box and is provided with a new form of non-conducting walls. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2013). Scientific American, Vol. XXXIX. No. 6. [New Series.], August 10, 1878. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19406/pg19406-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE JAPANESE BUILDING AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION

Scientific American Supplement, No. 711, August 17, 1889, by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . ON THE OCCURRENCE OF PARAFFINE IN CRUDE PETROLEUM. here ON THE OCCURRENCE OF PARAFFINE IN CRUDE PETROLEUM. It is well known that the paraffine obtained by the distillation of petroleum residues is crystalline, while that obtained directly (as in the filtration of residuum) is amorphous. Ozokerite or ceresine differs but slightly from paraffine, the principal distinction being want of crystalline structure in it as found. Other characteristics, such as the melting point, specific gravity, etc., vary in both, and so are not of importance in a comparison. Hence it has been asked, Is the paraffine occurring in petroleum and ozokerite identical with that which is produced by their distillation? As crystalline paraffine could be obtained from ozokerite by distillation alone, many persons have supposed that it was engendered in the process. Recently, however, crystalline paraffine has been obtained from ozokerite by dissolving the latter in warm amyl alcohol; on cooling the greater part separates out in crystals having the luster of mother-of-pearl. By repetition of this process, a substance is obtained that is scarcely to be distinguished from the paraffine obtained by distillation. Apparently there exists then in ozokerite, together with paraffine, other substances not capable of crystallization which keep the paraffine from crystallizing. These colloids appear to be separated by amyl alcohol in virtue of their greater solubility in that menstruum. It is also reasonable to suppose that they undergo change or decomposition by distillation. So as petroleum residues are amorphous, and the crystalline paraffine is first produced by distillation, it has been argued that the paraffine present in crude petroleum is approximately the same thing as ozokerite. This, however, is not sufficient to establish the pyrogenic origin of all crystallized paraffine, as crystals can be obtained from the amorphous residues by distillation at normal or reduced pressure or in a current of steam. To explain these facts two assumptions are possible. Either the chemical and physical properties of all or some of the solid constituents are changed by the distillation, and the paraffine is changed from the amorphous into the crystalline variety, or the change produced by the distillation takes place in the medium ( , the mother liquid) in which the paraffine exists. The change effected in ozokerite and in petroleum residues when crystalline paraffine is obtained by distillation is to be regarded as a purification, and can be effected partially by treatment with amyl alcohol. In the same way, by repeated treatment of petroleum residuum with amyl alcohol, a substance of melting point 59° C. can be obtained, which cannot be distinguished from ordinary paraffine. i.e. The treatment with amyl alcohol has therefore accomplished the same results as was obtained by distillation, and the action is probably the same, , a partial separation of colloid substance. These facts point to the conclusion that crystallizable paraffine exists ready formed in both petroleum and in ozokerite, but in both cases other colloidal substances prevent its crystallization. By distillation, these colloids appear to be destroyed or changed so as to allow the paraffine to crystallize. i.e. It is a generally known fact that liquids always appear among the products of the distillation of paraffine, no matter in what way the distillation be conducted. This shows that some paraffine is decomposed in the operation. The name has been given to ozokerite and to the paraffine of petroleum in contradistinction to , the name that has been applied to the paraffine obtained by distillation from any source. proto-paraffine pyro-paraffine According to Reichenbach, paraffine may crystallize in three forms: needles, angular grains, and leaflets having the luster of mother-of-pearl. Hofstadter, in an article on the identity of paraffine from different sources, confirmed this statement, and added further that at first needles, then the angular forms, and then the leaflets are formed. Fritsche found, by means of the microscope, in the ethereal solution of ozokerite, very fine and thin crystal leaflets concentrically grouped, and in the alcoholic solution fine irregular leaflets. Zaloziecki has recently developed these microscopic investigations to a much greater extent. According to this observer, the principal part of paraffine, as seen under the microscope, consists of shining stratified leaflets with a darker edge. The most characteristic and well developed crystals are formed by dissolving paraffine in a mixture of ethyl and amyl alcohols and chilling. The crystals are rhombic or hexagonal tablets or leaves, and are quite regularly formed. They are unequally developed in different varieties of paraffine. The best developed are those obtained from ceresine. Their relative size and appearance give an indication as to the purity of the paraffine, and, as they are always present, they are to be counted among the characteristic tests for paraffine. Reichenbach observed that mere traces of empyreumatic oil prevented their formation. The old method of determining the amount of paraffine in petroleum was to carry out the refining process on a small scale; that is, to distill the residue from the kerosene oils to coking, chill out the paraffine, press it thoroughly between filter paper, and weigh the residue. The sources of error in this procedure are manifold; the principal one is the solubility of paraffine in oils, which depends upon the character of both the paraffine and the oil, and also upon the temperature. The next greatest source of error is variation in the process of distillation and the difference between working on the small scale and on the large scale. In most cases, where a paraffine determination is to be carried out, one has to deal with a mixture of paraffine with liquid oils. Now, paraffine is not a substance defined by characteristic physical properties which distinguish it from the liquid portions of petroleum. It consists of a mixture of homologous hydrocarbons, which form a solid under ordinary conditions. The hydrocarbons of this mixture show a gradation in their properties, and gradually approximate to those which are liquid at ordinary temperatures. It is a well known fact that a separation of these homologues is entirely impossible by distillation. It has also been ascertained that the liquid constituents of petroleum do not always possess boiling points that are lower than those of the solid constituents. This shows that we have to deal not merely with hydrocarbons of one, but of several series. When determinations of the amount of paraffine are to be made, then it becomes necessary to specify with exactness what is to be called paraffine. The most definite property that can be made use of for this purpose is the melting point. For several reasons it is convenient to include under this name hydrocarbons of melting point as low as 35°-40° C. The method proposed by Zaloziecki for the determination of paraffine is the following: The most volatile portions of the petroleum are separated by distillation, until the thermometer shows 200° C. These portions are separated, as they exert great solvent action upon paraffine. At the same time he finds that no pyro-paraffine is formed under this temperature. A weighed portion of the residue is taken and mixed with ten parts by weight of amyl alcohol and ten parts of seventy-five per cent. ethyl alcohol: the mixture is then chilled for twelve hours to 0° C. It is then filtered cold, washed first with a mixture of amyl and ethyl alcohols, and then with ethyl alcohol alone. The paraffine is transferred to a small porcelain evaporating dish and dried at 110° C. It is then heated with concentrated sulphuric acid to 150°-160° C. for fifteen to thirty minutes with constant stirring. The acid is then neutralized and the paraffine extracted by petroleum ether. On evaporation of the solvent, the paraffine is dried at 100° C. and weighed. Zaloziecki found, according to this method, in three samples of Galician petroleums, 4.6, 5.8 and 6.5 per cent., respectively, of proto-paraffine. The method was carried out as above with four samples of American petroleums, Colorado oil from Florence, Col.; Warren County oil from Wing Well, Warren, Pa.; Washington oil from Washington County, Pa.; Middle District oil from Butler County, Pa., all furnished by Professor Sadtler. They were very different in physical properties and in appearance, the Colorado oil being a much heavier oil than the others and the Washington oil being an amber oil, while the other two were of the ordinary dark green color and consistence. The losses on distillation to 200° C. were very different, being about one-tenth in the case of the Colorado oil and nearly one-half in the case of the others. The percentages of partially refined proto-paraffine in the four reduced oils (all below 200° C. off) were as follows: for the Colorado oil, 23.9 per cent.; for the Warren oil, 26.5 per cent.; for the Washington oil, 26.6 per cent.; and for the Middle District oil, 28.2 per cent. The question now arises, What value has this determination of the proto-paraffine which may exist in an oil? As before said, a portion of the paraffine is always decomposed in distillation at temperatures sufficiently high to drive over the paraffine oils, so the yield of pyro-paraffine is always less than the proto-paraffine shown to be present originally. Zaloziecki found this in the case of the several Galician oils he examined. Corresponding to the 4.6, 5.8 and 6.5 per cent. of proto-paraffine in the several oils he obtained 2.18, 2.65 and 2.35 per cent., respectively, of pyro-paraffine. For the present, however, the extraction of proto-paraffine on a large scale by means of such solvents as amyl and ethyl alcohols is out of the question on account of their cost. A distillation, under reduced pressure and with superheated steam, would, however, prevent much of the decomposition of the original proto-paraffine and increase the yield of pyro-paraffine. This study of Zaloziecki's method and the examination of American oils was suggested by Professor Sadtler and carried out in his laboratory. An abstract of thesis by E.A. Partridge, class of '89, Univ. of Pa. Read before the Chemical Section of the Franklin Institute by Prof. S.P. Sadtler. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2004). Scientific American Supplement, No. 711, August 17, 1889. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16972/pg16972-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

ON THE OCCURRENCE OF PARAFFINE IN CRUDE PETROLEUM

Scientific American, Volume XLIII., No. 25, December 18, 1880, by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . HOW TO RAISE TURKEYS. here FIRES—CAUSES AND PREVENTION. It is estimated that the total annual losses of insured property by fire, throughout the world, average nearly two hundred million dollars. Add to this the annual destruction of uninsured property, and we should probably have a total amounting to quite double these figures. How great the loss, how severe the tax upon the productive industry of mankind, this enormous yearly destruction amounts to, will come home to the minds of most readers more directly if we call attention to the fact that it just about equals the value of our total wheat crop during a year of good yield. And it is a direct tax upon productive industry everywhere, because, although here and there a nominal loser, fully insured, has only made what is sometimes called "a good sale" to the companies holding his risk, this is only a way of apportioning the loss whereby the community at large become the sufferers. Thus it is that we find all ably-managed insurance companies earnestly endeavoring to make it plain to the public how fires should be guarded against, or most effectually localized and controlled when once started. During the fall, or from "lighting up" time till about New Year's day, more fires occur ordinarily than in any other portion of the year. This fact points to some of the most general causes of conflagrations—as in the lighting and heating of houses, factories, etc., where this had not been necessary during the summer months. It is also found that after the first of the year the number of fires is greatly diminished, the lighting and heating arrangements having been subjected to a period of trial during which their most obvious defects would be remedied. While it may readily be conceded that the utmost care of the owner of property could not totally prevent great average losses from fire—for the greater the holdings the more must the proprietor trust to the oversight of others—it is evident that the above facts indicate the necessity of more strenuous precautions at this season. Gas pipes and fittings should then be tested; furnace flues and settings looked to; stove, heater, and grate fixtures and connections examined—and in all these particulars the scrutiny should be most closely directed to parts ordinarily covered up or out of sight, so that any defect or weakness from long disuse may be exposed. When to the above causes of fires we have added the extremely fruitful one found in the extensive use of coal oil within a few years past, we have indicated the most common sources of conflagrations of known origin. An English authority gives the percentages of different causes of 30,000 fires in London, from 1833 to 1865, as follows: Candles, 11.07; curtains, 9.71; flues, 7.80; gas, 7.65; sparks, 4.47; stoves, 1.67; children playing, 1.59; matches, 1.41; smoking tobacco, 1.40, other known causes, 19.40; unknown causes, 32.88. The foregoing figures do not give the percentage of incendiary fires,> and later statistics would, no doubt, show vastly more fires from the use of kerosene than are here attributed to candles. The prevention of fires, and the best means of minimizing the loss when they do occur, are topics which cover a wide field, and a collection of the literature on the subject would make a very respectable library. As the question presents itself to-day, it may well be doubted whether the general practice of large property holders of insuring all their possessions does not tend to lessen the constant vigilance which is the most essential requisite in preventing fires. Thousands of merchants never mean to keep a dollar's worth of goods in store or warehouse that is not fully covered by insurance, and they make this cost a regular charge upon their business as peremptorily as they do the wages paid the hands in their employ. But few manufacturers can so completely cover their risks by insurance, yet a large portion of them do so as far as they are able. It does not follow but that the larger portion of both merchants and manufacturers exercise what the law will fully decide is "due vigilance" in the care of the property so insured, but it is evident that in most cases the thoughtfulness is much less complete—the care wonderfully lacking in personal supervision—as compared with what would be the case were each one his own insurer. Of course, this in no way casts a doubt upon the general policy of business men being amply insured, but in fact shows the greater necessity why they should be so, that they may not suffer from the carelessness of a neighbor; it also points to the necessity of continually increasing care and thoroughness of inspection on the part of the insurance companies. These agencies, in fact, must compel the insured to keep up to the mark in the introduction of every improvement to ward off fires or diminish their destructiveness. The progress made in this department during recent years has been great. The almost universal use of steam has been attended by the fitting up of factories with force pumps, hose, and all the appliances of a modern fire brigade; dangerous rooms are metal sheathed, and machinery likely to cause fire is surrounded by stationary pipes from which jets of water may be turned on instantaneously from the outside; stores and warehouses have standing pipes from which every floor may be flooded with water under pressure, and the elevators, those most dangerous flues for rapidly spreading a fire, are either bricked in entirely or supposed to be closed at every floor. The latter point, however, is sometimes forgotten, as sea captains forget to keep the divisions of their vessels having watertight compartments separate from one another; the open elevator enlarges a small fire as rapidly as the open compartment allows the vessel to sink. With the best of appliances, however, discipline and drill on the part of the hands, in all factories, is of prime importance. It is always in the first stages of a fire that thoroughly efficient action is necessary, and here it is worth a thousand-fold more than can be any efforts after a fire is once thoroughly started. Long immunity is apt to beget a feeling of security, and the carelessness resulting from overconfidence has been the means of destroying many valuable factories which were amply provided with every facility for their own preservation. The teachers in some of the public schools of New York and Brooklyn, during the past year, set an example which some of our millowners might profitably follow. There have been cases when, from a sudden alarm of fire, children have been crushed in their crowding to get out of the building. The teachers, in the instances referred to, marched their children out, under discipline, as if there had been a fire. Let owners of factories try some such plan as this, by which workmen may be called upon to> cope with an imaginary fire, and many of them will, we venture to say, find means of improving their present system or appliances for protection, elaborate as they may at present think them to be. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2007). Scientific American, Volume XLIII., No. 25, December 18, 1880. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/21081/pg21081-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

FIRES—CAUSES AND PREVENTION

THE MOTOR AFLOAT

INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES

The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . THE DANGER OF LYING IN BED here THE DANGER OF LYING IN BED The man in the ticket-office said: “Have an accident insurance ticket, also?” “No,” I said, after studying the matter over a little. “No, I believe not; I am going to be traveling by rail all day today. However, tomorrow I don't travel. Give me one for tomorrow.” The man looked puzzled. He said: “But it is for accident insurance, and if you are going to travel by rail—” “If I am going to travel by rail I sha'n't need it. Lying at home in bed is the thing am afraid of.” I I had been looking into this matter. Last year I traveled twenty thousand miles, almost entirely by rail; the year before, I traveled over twenty-five thousand miles, half by sea and half by rail; and the year before that I traveled in the neighborhood of ten thousand miles, exclusively by rail. I suppose if I put in all the little odd journeys here and there, I may say I have traveled sixty thousand miles during the three years I have mentioned. And never an accident. For a good while I said to myself every morning: “Now I have escaped thus far, and so the chances are just that much increased that I shall catch it this time. I will be shrewd, and buy an accident ticket.” And to a dead moral certainty I drew a blank, and went to bed that night without a joint started or a bone splintered. I got tired of that sort of daily bother, and fell to buying accident tickets that were good for a month. I said to myself, “A man buy thirty blanks in one bundle.” can't But I was mistaken. There was never a prize in the the lot. I could read of railway accidents every day—the newspaper atmosphere was foggy with them; but somehow they never came my way. I found I had spent a good deal of money in the accident business, and had nothing to show for it. My suspicions were aroused, and I began to hunt around for somebody that had won in this lottery. I found plenty of people who had invested, but not an individual that had ever had an accident or made a cent. I stopped buying accident tickets and went to ciphering. The result was astounding. The peril lay not in traveling, but in staying at home. I hunted up statistics, and was amazed to find that after all the glaring newspaper headlines concerning railroad disasters, less than people had really lost their lives by those disasters in the preceding twelve months. The Erie road was set down as the most murderous in the list. It had killed forty-six—or twenty-six, I do not exactly remember which, but I know the number was double that of any other road. But the fact straightway suggested itself that the Erie was an immensely long road, and did more business than any other line in the country; so the double number of killed ceased to be matter for surprise. three hundred By further figuring, it appeared that between New York and Rochester the Erie ran eight passenger-trains each way every day—16 altogether; and carried a daily average of 6,000 persons. That is about a million in six months—the population of New York City. Well, the Erie kills from 13 to 23 persons of million in six months; and in the same time 13,000 of New York's million die in their beds! My flesh crept, my hair stood on end. “This is appalling!” I said. “The danger isn't in traveling by rail, but in trusting to those deadly beds. I will never sleep in a bed again.” its I had figured on considerably less than one-half the length of the Erie road. It was plain that the entire road must transport at least eleven or twelve thousand people every day. There are many short roads running out of Boston that do fully half as much; a great many such roads. There are many roads scattered about the Union that do a prodigious passenger business. Therefore it was fair to presume that an average of 2,500 passengers a day for each road in the country would be almost correct. There are 846 railway lines in our country, and 846 times 2,500 are 2,115,000. So the railways of America move more than two millions of people every day; six hundred and fifty millions of people a year, without counting the Sundays. They do that, too—there is no question about it; though where they get the raw material is clear beyond the jurisdiction of my arithmetic; for I have hunted the census through and through, and I find that there are not that many people in the United States, by a matter of six hundred and ten millions at the very least. They must use some of the same people over again, likely. San Francisco is one-eighth as populous as New York; there are 60 deaths a week in the former and 500 a week in the latter—if they have luck. That is 3,120 deaths a year in San Francisco, and eight times as many in New York—say about 25,000 or 26,000. The health of the two places is the same. So we will let it stand as a fair presumption that this will hold good all over the country, and that consequently 25,000 out of every million of people we have must die every year. That amounts to one-fortieth of our total population. One million of us, then, die annually. Out of this million ten or twelve thousand are stabbed, shot, drowned, hanged, poisoned, or meet a similarly violent death in some other popular way, such as perishing by kerosene-lamp and hoop-skirt conflagrations, getting buried in coal-mines, falling off house-tops, breaking through church, or lecture-room floors, taking patent medicines, or committing suicide in other forms. The Erie railroad kills 23 to 46; the other 845 railroads kill an average of one-third of a man each; and the rest of that million, amounting in the aggregate to that appalling figure of 987,631 corpses, die naturally in their beds! You will excuse me from taking any more chances on those beds. The railroads are good enough for me. And my advice to all people is, Don't stay at home any more than you can help; but when you have to stay at home a while, buy a package of those insurance tickets and sit up nights. You cannot be too cautious. got (One can see now why I answered that ticket-agent in the manner recorded at the top of this sketch.) The moral of this composition is, that thoughtless people grumble more than is fair about railroad management in the United States. When we consider that every day and night of the year full fourteen thousand railway-trains of various kinds, freighted with life and armed with death, go thundering over the land, the marvel is, that they kill three hundred human beings in a twelvemonth, but that they do not kill three hundred times three hundred! not About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/142/pg142-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE DANGER OF LYING IN BED

Chronicles of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Pa Sloane’s Purchase IX. Pa Sloane’s Purchase “I guess the molasses is getting low, ain’t it?” said Pa Sloane insinuatingly. “S’pose I’d better drive up to Carmody this afternoon and get some more.” “There’s a good half-gallon of molasses in the jug yet,” said ma Sloane ruthlessly. “That so? Well, I noticed the kerosene demijohn wasn’t very hefty the last time I filled the can. Reckon it needs replenishing.” “We have kerosene enough to do for a fortnight yet.” Ma continued to eat her dinner with an impassive face, but a twinkle made itself apparent in her eye. Lest Pa should see it, and feel encouraged thereby, she looked immovably at her plate. Pa Sloane sighed. His invention was giving out. “Didn’t I hear you say day before yesterday that you were out of nutmegs?” he queried, after a few moments’ severe reflection. “I got a supply of them from the egg-pedlar yesterday,” responded Ma, by a great effort preventing the twinkle from spreading over her entire face. She wondered if this third failure would squelch Pa. But Pa was not to be squelched. “Well, anyway,” he said, brightening up under the influence of a sudden saving inspiration. “I’ll have to go up to get the sorrel mare shod. So, if you’ve any little errands you want done at the store, Ma, just make a memo of them while I hitch up.” The matter of shoeing the sorrel mare was beyond Ma’s province, although she had her own suspicions about the sorrel mare’s need of shoes. “Why can’t you give up beating about the bush, Pa?” she demanded, with contemptuous pity. “You might as well own up what’s taking you to Carmody. I can see through your design. You want to get away to the Garland auction. That is what is troubling you, Pa Sloane.” “I dunno but what I might step over, seeing it’s so handy. But the sorrel mare really does need shoeing, Ma,” protested Pa. “There’s always something needing to be done if it’s convenient,” retorted Ma. “Your mania for auctions will be the ruin of you yet, Pa. A man of fifty-five ought to have grown out of such a hankering. But the older you get the worse you get. Anyway, if I wanted to go to auctions, I’d select them as was something like, and not waste my time on little one-horse affairs like this of Garland’s.” “One might pick up something real cheap at Garland’s,” said Pa defensively. “Well, you are not going to pick up anything, cheap or otherwise, Pa Sloane, because I’m going with you to see that you don’t. I know I can’t stop you from going. I might as well try to stop the wind from blowing. But I shall go, too, out of self-defence. This house is so full now of old clutter and truck that you’ve brought home from auctions that I feel as if I was made up out of pieces and left overs.” Pa Sloane sighed again. It was not exhilarating to attend an auction with Ma. She would never let him bid on anything. But he realized that Ma’s mind was made up beyond the power of mortal man’s persuasion to alter it, so he went out to hitch up. Pa Sloane’s dissipation was going to auctions and buying things that nobody else would buy. Ma Sloane’s patient endeavours of over thirty years had been able to effect only a partial reform. Sometimes Pa heroically refrained from going to an auction for six months at a time; then he would break out worse than ever, go to all that took place for miles around, and come home with a wagonful of misfits. His last exploit had been to bid on an old dasher churn for five dollars—the boys “ran things up” on Pa Sloane for the fun of it—and bring it home to outraged Ma, who had made her butter for fifteen years in the very latest, most up-to-date barrel churn. To add insult to injury this was the second dasher churn Pa had bought at auction. That settled it. Ma decreed that henceforth she would chaperon Pa when he went to auctions. But this was the day of Pa’s good angel. When he drove up to the door where Ma was waiting, a breathless, hatless imp of ten flew into the yard, and hurled himself between Ma and the wagon-step. “Oh, Mrs. Sloane, won’t you come over to our house at once?” he gasped. “The baby, he’s got colic, and ma’s just wild, and he’s all black in the face.” Ma went, feeling that the stars in their courses fought against a woman who was trying to do her duty by her husband. But first she admonished Pa. “I shall have to let you go alone. But I charge you, Pa, not to bid on anything—on ANYTHING, do you hear?” Pa heard and promised to heed, with every intention of keeping his promise. Then he drove away joyfully. On any other occasion Ma would have been a welcome companion. But she certainly spoiled the flavour of an auction. When Pa arrived at the Carmody store, he saw that the little yard of the Garland place below the hill was already full of people. The auction had evidently begun; so, not to miss any more of it, Pa hurried down. The sorrel mare could wait for her shoes until afterwards. Ma had been within bounds when she called the Garland auction a “one-horse affair.” It certainly was very paltry, especially when compared to the big Donaldson auction of a month ago, which Pa still lived over in happy dreams. Horace Garland and his wife had been poor. When they died within six weeks of each other, one of consumption and one of pneumonia, they left nothing but debts and a little furniture. The house had been a rented one. The bidding on the various poor articles of household gear put up for sale was not brisk, but had an element of resigned determination. Carmody people knew that these things had to be sold to pay the debts, and they could not be sold unless they were bought. Still, it was a very tame affair. A woman came out of the house carrying a baby of about eighteen months in her arms, and sat down on the bench beneath the window. “There’s Marthy Blair with the Garland Baby,” said Robert Lawson to Pa. “I’d like to know what’s to become of that poor young one!” “Ain’t there any of the father’s or mother’s folks to take him?” asked Pa. “No. Horace had no relatives that anybody ever heard of. Mrs. Horace had a brother; but he went to Manitoba years ago, and nobody knows where he is now. Somebody’ll have to take the baby and nobody seems anxious to. I’ve got eight myself, or I’d think about it. He’s a fine little chap.” Pa, with Ma’s parting admonition ringing in his ears, did not bid on anything, although it will never be known how great was the heroic self-restraint he put on himself, until just at the last, when he did bid on a collection of flower-pots, thinking he might indulge himself to that small extent. But Josiah Sloane had been commissioned by his wife to bring those flower-pots home to her; so Pa lost them. “There, that’s all,” said the auctioneer, wiping his face, for the day was very warm for October. “There’s nothing more unless we sell the baby.” A laugh went through the crowd. The sale had been a dull affair, and they were ready for some fun. Someone called out, “Put him up, Jacob.” The joke found favour and the call was repeated hilariously. Jacob Blair took little Teddy Garland out of Martha’s arms and stood him up on the table by the door, steadying the small chap with one big brown hand. The baby had a mop of yellow curls, and a pink and white face, and big blue eyes. He laughed out at the men before him and waved his hands in delight. Pa Sloane thought he had never seen so pretty a baby. “Here’s a baby for sale,” shouted the auctioneer. “A genuine article, pretty near as good as brand-new. A real live baby, warranted to walk and talk a little. Who bids? A dollar? Did I hear anyone mean enough to bid a dollar? No, sir, babies don’t come as cheap as that, especially the curly-headed brand.” The crowd laughed again. Pa Sloane, by way of keeping on the joke, cried, “Four dollars!” Everybody looked at him. The impression flashed through the crowd that Pa was in earnest, and meant thus to signify his intention of giving the baby a home. He was well-to-do, and his only son was grown up and married. “Six,” cried out John Clarke from the other side of the yard. John Clarke lived at White Sands and he and his wife were childless. That bid of John Clarke’s was Pa’s undoing. Pa Sloane could not have an enemy; but a rival he had, and that rival was John Clarke. Everywhere at auctions John Clarke was wont to bid against Pa. At the last auction he had outbid Pa in everything, not having the fear of his wife before his eyes. Pa’s fighting blood was up in a moment; he forgot Ma Sloane; he forgot what he was bidding for; he forgot everything except a determination that John Clarke should not be victor again. “Ten,” he called shrilly. “Fifteen,” shouted Clarke. “Twenty,” vociferated Pa. “Twenty-five,” bellowed Clarke. “Thirty,” shrieked Pa. He nearly bust a blood-vessel in his shrieking, but he had won. Clarke turned off with a laugh and a shrug, and the baby was knocked down to Pa Sloane by the auctioneer, who had meanwhile been keeping the crowd in roars of laughter by a quick fire of witticisms. There had not been such fun at an auction in Carmody for many a long day. Pa Sloane came, or was pushed, forward. The baby was put into his arms; he realized that he was expected to keep it, and he was too dazed to refuse; besides, his heart went out to the child. The auctioneer looked doubtfully at the money which Pa laid mutely down. “I s’pose that part was only a joke,” he said. “Not a bit of it,” said Robert Lawson. “All the money won’t be too much to pay the debts. There’s a doctor’s bill, and this will just about pay it.” Pa Sloane drove back home, with the sorrel mare still unshod, the baby, and the baby’s meager bundle of clothes. The baby did not trouble him much; it had become well used to strangers in the past two months, and promptly fell asleep on his arm; but Pa Sloane did not enjoy that drive; at the end of it he mentally saw Ma Sloane. Ma was there, too, waiting for him on the back door-step as he drove into the yard at sunset. Her face, when she saw the baby, expressed the last degree of amazement. “Pa Sloane,” she demanded, “whose is that young one, and where did you get it?” “I—I—bought it at the auction, Ma,” said Pa feebly. Then he waited for the explosion. None came. This last exploit of Pa’s was too much for Ma. With a gasp she snatched the baby from Pa’s arms, and ordered him to go out and put the mare in. When Pa returned to the kitchen Ma had set the baby on the sofa, fenced him around with chairs so that he couldn’t fall off and given him a molassed cooky. “Now, Pa Sloane, you can explain,” she said. Pa explained. Ma listened in grim silence until he had finished. Then she said sternly: “Do you reckon we’re going to keep this baby?” “I—I—dunno,” said Pa. And he didn’t. “Well, we’re NOT. I brought up one boy and that’s enough. I don’t calculate to be pestered with any more. I never was much struck on children as children, anyhow. You say that Mary Garland had a brother out in Manitoba? Well, we shall just write to him and tell him he’s got to look out for his nephew.” “But how can you do that, Ma, when nobody knows his address?” objected Pa, with a wistful look at that delicious, laughing baby. “I’ll find out his address if I have to advertise in the papers for him,” retorted Ma. “As for you, Pa Sloane, you’re not fit to be out of a lunatic asylum. The next auction you’ll be buying a wife, I s’pose?” Pa, quite crushed by Ma’s sarcasm, pulled his chair in to supper. Ma picked up the baby and sat down at the head of the table. Little Teddy laughed and pinched her face—Ma’s face! Ma looked very grim, but she fed him his supper as skilfully as if it had not been thirty years since she had done such a thing. But then, the woman who once learns the mother knack never forgets it. After tea Ma despatched Pa over to William Alexander’s to borrow a high chair. When Pa returned in the twilight, the baby was fenced in on the sofa again, and Ma was stepping briskly about the garret. She was bringing down the little cot bed her own boy had once occupied, and setting it up in their room for Teddy. Then she undressed the baby and rocked him to sleep, crooning an old lullaby over him. Pa Sloane sat quietly and listened, with very sweet memories of the long ago, when he and Ma had been young and proud, and the bewhiskered William Alexander had been a curly-headed little fellow like this one. Ma was not driven to advertising for Mrs. Garland’s brother. That personage saw the notice of his sister’s death in a home paper and wrote to the Carmody postmaster for full information. The letter was referred to Ma and Ma answered it. She wrote that they had taken in the baby, pending further arrangements, but had no intention of keeping it; and she calmly demanded of its uncle what was to be done with it. Then she sealed and addressed the letter with an unfaltering hand; but, when it was done, she looked across the table at Pa Sloane, who was sitting in the armchair with the baby on his knee. They were having a royal good time together. Pa had always been dreadfully foolish about babies. He looked ten years younger. Ma’s keen eyes softened a little as she watched them. A prompt answer came to her letter. Teddy’s uncle wrote that he had six children of his own, but was nevertheless willing and glad to give his little nephew a home. But he could not come after him. Josiah Spencer, of White Sands, was going out to Manitoba in the spring. If Mr. and Mrs. Sloane could only keep the baby till then he could be sent out with the Spencers. Perhaps they would see a chance sooner. “There’ll be no chance sooner,” said Pa Sloane in a tone of satisfaction. “No, worse luck!” retorted Ma crisply. The winter passed by. Little Teddy grew and throve, and Pa Sloane worshipped him. Ma was very good to him, too, and Teddy was just as fond of her as of Pa. Nevertheless, as the spring drew near, Pa became depressed. Sometimes he sighed heavily, especially when he heard casual references to the Josiah Spencer emigration. One warm afternoon in early May Josiah Spencer arrived. He found Ma knitting placidly in the kitchen, while Pa nodded over his newspaper and the baby played with the cat on the floor. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Sloane,” said Josiah with a flourish. “I just dropped in to see about this young man here. We are going to leave next Wednesday; so you’d better send him down to our place Monday or Tuesday, so that he can get used to us, and—” “Oh, Ma,” began Pa, rising imploringly to his feet. Ma transfixed him with her eye. “Sit down, Pa,” she commanded. Unhappy Pa sat. Then Ma glared at the smiling Josiah, who instantly felt as guilty as if he had been caught stealing sheep red-handed. “We are much obliged to you, Mr. Spencer,” said Ma icily, “but this baby is OURS. We bought him, and we paid for him. A bargain is a bargain. When I pay cash down for babies, I propose to get my money’s worth. We are going to keep this baby in spite of any number of uncles in Manitoba. Have I made this sufficiently clear to your understanding, Mr. Spencer?” “Certainly, certainly,” stammered the unfortunate man, feeling guiltier than ever, “but I thought you didn’t want him—I thought you’d written to his uncle—I thought—” “I really wouldn’t think quite so much if I were you,” said Ma kindly. “It must be hard on you. Won’t you stay and have tea with us?” But, no, Josiah would not stay. He was thankful to make his escape with such rags of self-respect as remained to him. Pa Sloane arose and came around to Ma’s chair. He laid a trembling hand on her shoulder. “Ma, you’re a good woman,” he said softly. “Go ‘long, Pa,” said Ma. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. L. M. Montgomery (1998). Chronicles of Avonlea. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1354/pg1354-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

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